


A Defiled Flower

by Kawaii_Bunny



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Anal Sex, Angst, BL, BaekYeol - Freeform, ChanBaek - Freeform, Child Byun Baekhyun, Child Park Chanyeol, Childhood Friends, Drama, Fluff and Angst, Forced, Forced Orgasm, Forced Relationship, M/M, Master & Servant, Master Chanyeol, Master/Servant, Rape/Non-con Elements, Servant Baekhyun, Trauma, Yaoi, unbetaed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-06
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2018-11-08 20:05:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11088966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kawaii_Bunny/pseuds/Kawaii_Bunny
Summary: 7 year old Byun Baekhyun, the son to the head maidservant, was so eager to make friend with the young master Park Chanyeol who just arrived from England. However, it did not turn out well when Chanyeol haughtily shooed him away. "You're only a servant and I am your master. Know your place", he said. Still, that did not make the persistent Baekhyun to give up as he kept clinging to Chanyeol like a child he was.Until one day when an unexpected event came up, Chanyeol finally opened his heart to befriend the poor child. He promised to protect him and would not let him feel lonely.





	1. Foreward

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there, this is my first time publishing story in AO3, so be kind to me hehe. I'm always here as a reader but I finally decided to write a story here. Before I was an author in asianfanfics, and still am. 
> 
> Please read the tags first before proceeding to the story. 'A Defiled Flower' is really quite an angsty and dark story. It may be starting with fluffs between childhood friends, but it gets dark at the end. Though, it did not involve character death, I promised. It's full of drama. Hope you enjoy :)

 

 

 

Scene.

“Why can’t we be friends?”, a young Baekhyun asked with a sad face, trailing behind his master.

“You’re only a servant and I am your master. Know your place”, Chanyeol stated coldly looking down at him.

Baekhyun sighed with a pout. His cheeks went red for being too angry towards the new young master. “I don’t work here, only my mom does. So I’m not your servant”, he stuck out his tongue and ran away as fast as he could, not looking back.

 _I hate him,_ the younger breathed out of anger.


	2. He changed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter yeay although it is so short.  
> Just to inform you guys that I am a slow updater so, sorry in advance. Please bear with my slow updates and grammatical errorS. This fic is not beta-ed so hence the numbers of errors, I'm still learning. But if anyone would like to be my beta reader you are welcome ^_^
> 
> Oh and just before you start reading, to prevent any confusion; this story is present- and past-based. Means it has a lot of flashbacks, but it's okay I'll inform if it's in the present or past so no confusion happen. Words in italic are thoughts.  
> Hope you enjoy reading and leave comment for me to see your feedback juseyoo ^_^

_Present._

It was a rainy blue morning when the man finally set his feet once again in the big house here in Seoul after leaving it for almost seven years. The Grand Foyer was the first to foresee once he passed through the giant wooden door. Park Chanyeol, 25 years old, the only son of the Park family, standing taller than his father and probably everyone in the house, was greeted by number of servants bowing their body slightly as he entered the hall. His eyes scanned around the hall, trying to remember every pieces of how it used to look like the last time he stood at the same spot, which was eight years ago before he left to London.

A giant painting of him and his parents was still there hanging on the wall, looking noble and sophisticated. He was only ten at that moment, and wearing a layered custom-made suit with bow that choked him was not worthy for a picture, his little self thought so. Besides the big painting, everything looked quite the same except for the navy blue carpets and curtains. It used to be burgundy red. An aged piano was still fixed on the corner right beside the tall window. A number of expensive vases still lined on the left, as it were Chanyeol’s mother favourite collection. A little smile displayed on his face as he inhaled the folksy air of the atmosphere. _Same old homey scent_.

One man in complete and neat uniform came to him and took the luggage from his hand. Another two young maids walked towards him and took off the long black coat he was wearing. The coat was sprinkled with raindrops from the calming rain outside. Chanyeol’s eyes wandered through the number of servants bowing before him, searching for one specific. He was fair, small and delicate like a flower as what Chanyeol described this specific.

“May I help you with that?”, out of nowhere, a familiar voice was heard to Chanyeol’s ears. He faced towards where the soft yet stern voice was coming from and his eyes glimmered. Walking towards him was the specific guy he long anticipated. _He never change._ The same petite body, the same pale cherry blossom skin and the same sad eyes, approaching him. A pair of sad eyes that were born due to losing something that would never return.

“Baekhyun!!”, Chanyeol beamed.

The tall man abruptly put his long arms around Baekhyun, embracing the small one after almost a decade being apart from each other. Throwing all his longing feeling into the hug, he tightened his arms. However, he felt something abnormal. As much as he wanted to admit how warm and usual the embrace was, it actually felt cold and empty. His heart hitched in disappointment once he noticed Baekhyun’s hands was not there replying to his hold. On the contrary, those slender fingers pushed against his chest in order to break the sudden embrace.

“I am sorry Master but everyone is looking. Please stop this right now. His bag please?”, Baekhyun took his luggage from the man waiting at the side. “I’ll take you to your room now please follow me”, without sparing Chanyeol at least a glance, he walked away leaving the dumbfounded guy at loss for words.

_I was wrong. He changed._

Chanyeol followed silently after Baekhyun as he led him to his room on the first floor. Observing from behind, he noticed how his hair was cut shorter than how it used to be back in their teenage years. He unconsciously bawled a fist on his right hand. He wanted to touch the thin neck so badly it hurt. He wondered the purpose of Baekhyun treating him so foreign-ly. He was not like this before. Before he was a bright, loud and clingy child. Now he was just serious, dull and solemn. Chanyeol hated it.

“I was informed that your parents will be arrived here in two hours. So for the time being, you can take some rest. Mr. Kim is the head servant now, call him if you need anything”, Baekhyun spoke with an uninterested monotone voice. Chanyeol knew Mr Kim, the man Baekhyun was talking about; a kind gentleman around his 50s, who has been a loyal servant for the Park family even before Chanyeol was born. He had been there since him and Baekhyun were an artless child, teaching them mathematics and etiquettes.

Before Baekhyun could close the door, he was ceased with Chanyeol calling out to him. “Baekhyun”.

“Yes master”, Baekhyun looked at him in the eyes.

Chanyeol clenched his jaw tight as he swallowed an amount of saliva. He felt irritated with the way Baekhyun apathetically looked at him. Moreover with the way he called him ‘Master’, creating an inessential barrier between them both.

“What is wrong with you?”, the master questioned the servant.

It took Baekhyun few seconds to respond to him, “I’m sorry?”. From a monotone voice, he sounded bewildered.

“Why are you acting so...distant?”, there was a hint of despondent in his deep voice.

“I’m sorry Master but I don’t understand what you’re trying to—“

“Stop that! Stop the formality already! Why are you acting like this?”, Chanyeol screamed, abruptly stopping Baekhyun from concluding his own words. It caught the servant off guard when he pressed his lips together, failed to find any suitable word to answer.

Chanyeol carefully made his steps towards Baekhyun and for the first time on that day, he witnessed an expression on the smaller guy’s face. A real genuine expression. His eyebrows furrowed deeply as he looked down to the floor. Chanyeol walked nearer to him who was standing there fidgeting. 

“Baekhyun?”, as if he was a completely different person, Chanyeol’s voice softened tenfold. He brought his hand to hold Baekhyun’s wrist. It was the same thin and chill skin from ten years ago. _Please don’t change, please._

“Chanyeol....”

A wave of memories passed by Chanyeol’s mind as soon as he heard his name being called with that tone of voice. Softer and more emotions were put into his voice this time rather than being a monotone.

Baekhyun coldheartedly pushed his hand away from his arm. “It’s better this way”, his voice went serious though slightly shaky as he finalized it with a sigh. Chanyeol could not accept the fact that Baekhyun just withdrew his hand away. Thus, he held him tight again, this time both on his biceps pinning him against the nearby wall. “What do you mean by that?”, he asked, eyes desperately trying to reach the soulless sad ones belonged to Baekhyun.

“I have work to do!”, out of the blue Baekhyun raised his voice, though not too loud for someone outside the room to hear. Concluding from his annoyed expression, Chanyeol eventually let him go. He was shocked and speechless. The smaller exhaled an amount of breath, “So please...excuse me”.

He left.

_He changed._


	3. Ugly Duckling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guyss...I told you I'm a late updater sorry sorry. Hope you enjoy this chapter.  
> Kindly leave kudos and comments if you like the story :) It'll be a pleasure for me

_Past._

A young 10 year old Park Chanyeol continued his steps along the sea of white hibiscus blossoming gracefully under the warm sun. He did not expect such house to have a very wide land at the back, enough to fit a flower garden complete with a fountain and a fish pond. He did not expect such house to be his parents’ when all this time they had been living in London.

“I don’t know mom and dad has other house in...”, his mumble trailed off, forgetting the place his mother mentioned yesterday when he asked where they were migrating.

“Oh Korea!”, he snapped his fingers.

Chanyeol and both his parents had just shortly arrived in Korea all the way from England. They departed yesterday in the afternoon and safely landed in Incheon airport around this morning. The reason why the Park family suddenly had to move back to their motherland was because Chanyeol’s grandfather finally passed away and it was confirmed that his father, Mr. Park as the first child to continue the Park’s big company. Hence, here Chanyeol was standing on the ground of Seoul which still felt foreign and unwelcomed to him. In addition, the fact that he would never see his two friends, Jacob and Steven ever again made him more unwilling to come here.

“It’s only been one day and I already miss them”, he wondered the time now back in London and what were his two best pals doing at the moment.

Discovering a wooden bench, he made his steps towards it and sat down. The light breeze of spring hit his face as he closed his eyes, feeling it soaked into his skin. For the next growing years of his life, he would be living here as a citizen. New room, new school uniform and new friends.

“Friends huh?”, he raised a brow. “I don’t think I’ll ever find any cool friends like Jacob and Steven here”, he rolled his eyes and rested his head back on the bench.

“I can be your friend”, out of nowhere, a high-pitched voice was heard replying to him. It made Chanyeol shoot his head back up straight and did a full 180 degree turn to search for the source of sound.

“Who...?”, he trailed off. He turned to his back, shrubs and bushes laid in view and no sign of human being.

A poked on his shoulder jerked both his body and heart in surprise. He turned to his left and there it was, a small boy present. He was already sitting next to him, smiling so purely under the leaf shadow. “Hi”, he offered a hand to shake.

Chanyeol looked lower to his hand and felt hesitated. He knew this child had been playing with earth since there were specks of dirt on his hands and clothes. The child retreat his hand with a befuddled expression. “I thought you guys shake hands there. No?”, he questioned. Judging from his small posture and his speech impediment, Chanyeol concluded the child to be younger than him.

“There where?”, Chanyeol questioned, eyes still looking at him, up and down.

“Engle-hand!!", the child beamed.

"What?"

"You’re the one just returned from Engle-hand right? My mom told me yesterday that the family master is returning to this house. When she told me I'm going to have friend, I was super-duper happy and can’t wait...”

Chanyeol’s attention migrated to his excited face.

 _This kid talks a lot_. He thought whilst his eyes focused to his moving hands as he talked.

 _His face looks like a girl._ The child’s long batting eyelashes somehow drew Chanyeol’s attention towards him more.

 _He even say England wrongly._ His frown deepened remembering the child's Engle-hand.

 _He also dresses differently_. He eyed his different way dressing. A pair of short trousers and a nude colour tshirt with mud stained at the hem. _It’s so out of trend._ Concurrent to what he was wearing; a nice cream-coloured shirt matching with an argyle-pattern sweater vest. His black slacks fitted comfortably on his lower limbs, accentuating his long and slender legs although he was only 10. He carried the good old dominant trait from both his parents, being the handsome, tall and intellectual young child.

“...and there’s also library in this house. You can read lots of books there. I can’t read though, so you can read me this story called Alfie and the rabbit. I only look through its pictures because my mom always reads it to me—”, the child ceased his unending talk for finally as he saw Chanyeol stood up and walked away from him.

“Hey! Where are you going? Wait up”, he struggled to get to the ground from the wooden bench, being a shorty he was.

“Away from you”, Chanyeol answered without looking back.

“What? Why? I thought we are friends”, the smaller one finally caught up to Chanyeol.

“Who says I want to be your friend?”

“But just now...”

“Nope. I didn’t say anything”

“But—”

“Go away! Stop following me”, Chanyeol raised a little volume of his voice at him.

The child stopped right on the spot. His eyes were wide, surprised by Chanyeol’s raised voice. He stared in silent as Chanyeol walked away from him with an exasperated sigh.

* * *

 

The next day, Chanyeol wandered through the hibiscus garden again. The same warm air and breeze as yesterday occupied the surroundings. Only this time, a new circumstance was added. Rather than him being alone like earlier yesterday, he was followed by this fellow child. Again.

He felt annoyed when he heard the sound of footsteps trailing closer behind him. After few more steps, he abruptly stopped his pace which simultaneously made the stepping sound behind him vanished too.

He turned around, eyebrows already almost connecting. “I told you to not follow me. Go away kid!”, he shooed the child away with his hand in the rudest manner.

The child stubbornly shook his head and stayed on the spot. “I said let’s be friends!”, he crossed both arms together and stomped one foot against the ground. Chanyeol rolled his eyes in annoyance and left him.

_I swear if he follow me again I’m gonna—_

When he noticed the child initiate his steps to shadow behind him again, he clicked his tongue simultaneously turning around and pushed the boy down to the ground.

“Ouch!”, the child wailed in pain when his butt met the pebbly ground.

“Stop following me or I’ll push you again!”, Chanyeol screamed at the child’s face.

The smaller eventually stood up as he rubbed the dirt off of his butt. At last he decided to not follow Chanyeol when he deliberately started his steps towards the opposite way. “I just want to be friends with you”, the kid mumbled with his small pouty lips, loud enough for Chanyeol to hear. Nevertheless, he ignored it and continued his steps forward, deeper into the garden. He has not discovered the whole 40 000 square foot garden till its end yet.

* * *

 

 “Now what’s with the long face?”, a woman in her early thirties asked her son when she saw him coming into the kitchen with a sullen expression. She had a complexion of fair and smooth skin despite being a mother to a seven year old child. Her eyelashes were long and thick, making people noticed it even from afar. Her thin rosy lips that always smile never fail to warm people’s heart every time she speaks. She was Mrs. Byun Eunha, the head maidservant of the house and a mother to a child named Byun Baekhyun.

“The young master doesn’t want to be friends with me, I hate him”, the child exclaimed.

“Now now Baekhyun you can’t say that, you should not speak badly about the young master you know that right?”

“I knew but he pushed me mom and all I want is to make friends with him. He is evil”

Mrs. Byun dried her hands on the small towel hanging by the kitchen counter and walked to take a seat beside her son. “Maybe it takes time. He’s not used to the environment here sweetheart, okay?”.

“Okay”, there were creases in between his eyebrows.

Baekhyun, the only son to the head maidservant looked at his mother with a dissatisfy face. He automatically closed his eyes as he felt the soft fingers brushing into his dark locks.

“He’s going to be the next head of the Park family. To respect and serve them at our best is our duty Baekhyun. Understand? You’re going to be a good servant and serve the Park family one day like your mother right?”, she asked her beloved son, hands already cupping the child’s flushed cheeks.

“Right!”, he answered to his mother with enthusiasm.

 To become a prestigious and reputable servant to the Park family is a promise between both the mother and son. They owe the Park family when one night the late head master took them in when they were in the midst of fortuneless. Mrs. Byun was homeless back then, carrying a crying infant in her arms. Everything was taken away from them as soon as the father passed away.

It was arduous back then, but the Park family changed their ugly fate by taking them to work in their house, providing them food and shelter. Hence, they were vowed to serve the Park family at their best. It was an oath created between the mother and the son.

* * *

 

 

A walked around the backyard garden today was unexpectedly peaceful for Chanyeol since the child was not there trailing behind him like a duckling. It was so quiet to the extent he even noticed the breeze that passed by and the cicadas that made sound. He even focused on the lapses between the clouds covering the sun, giving a nice subtle view of the garden. He could say it was a little too quiet.

_Whatever._

He grasped information that the kid was the son of a servant in the house. It was last night when he heard the conversation between his mother and the head maidservant, talking about the close age gap between their sons. They seemed close regardless their master-servant relationship, already laughing like high school friends. The maidservant was really well mannered and respectful towards his mother. To Chanyeol’s viewpoint, the kid has the face of his mother, smooth fair skin with soft features.

"—Give it back!”

His train of thoughts ceased the moment he heard a familiar voice out of nowhere. _It’s that kid’s._ The sound was indistinct and he assured it was not from his head. He began to look around detecting where it was coming from.

Walking towards the east-end of the garden where he saw tall metal fence, he spotted the small familiar figure outside. It was a wonder how he could tell the body belonged to the kid just from the back view. With that small thin body and silky rich black hair that shone under the sun, Chanyeol was certain. Along with him were two other kids around Chanyeol’s age.

Outside, lead him to an old and unused playground where the ground was mostly grass-filled. The swings were rusty and there were mucky puddles at the end of the slides. The see-saw too was already surrounded with vines, as if nature just took dominance of the whole playground.

“This toy is so ugly you should throw it in the garbage bin”, one of them laughed evilly. In his hand was a simple plane craft made out of wood.

“Hey kid, I told you this is not your place. Go back inside”, the other friend reminded the smaller, pushing him by the shoulders. It triggered Chanyeol to scream at them. Though who was he to feel mad about the kid being pushed when he once did the same thing. He looked to his left and found an opened gate towards the outside.

“This is not your playground so anyone can be here”, the child declared.

“Hiaaa, don’t be such a stubborn little brat”, the one holding the toy plane harshly knocked the child on his forehead with his other free hand.

“Ow!”, the child covered the spot where it got knocked with both his hands. The two older kids laughed at him. “Now go back inside and cry to your mama”, they mimicked a baby’s crying sound, a little too pathetically. It angered the child when he strongly stepped on one of their foot.

“OUCH!”, the one got stomped on screamed at him and within seconds, the smaller was pushed to the ground quite brutally. “You want your ugly plane back, here take it”. He later threw the plane hard on the ground and stepped on it. Crack! The sound of wood splitting into pieces was heard as the toy continuously being crushed.

It left a gasped from the child as he stared at his toy plane fell apart, being stepped on again and again. His lips began to tremble as he pressed it together. The older kids teased and laughed scornfully at him until the child on the ground eventually cried. As the two friends were about to leave the sobbing child, someone stopped them.

“Hiaa!”, Chanyeol was there standing beside the crying boy. “Whatever you did just now was not nice”, he added.

“Huh? And what are you going to do about it? Ground us?”, one of them laughed as he looked at Chanyeol like he was some sort of stupidity.

Chanyeol’s eyes twitched in a raging displeasure for the obvious insult. He walked towards them and pushed both of them down to the ground with his two bare hands. The two kids, probably around his age as what he assumed, quickly stood up with a dissatisfying expression. Chanyeol showed no sign of fear as he crossed both his arms against his chest, and as a matter of fact, looking down at them as he was a head tall.

Looking at Chanyeol’s undoubting character, the two kids began to hesitate. They deliberately moved backwards, eyes staring back to back to Chanyeol and the smaller kid who was still sobbing quietly over his broken toy.

“We will return, got that?”, one of them reminded, although there was a hint of trembling lips and hand as he pointed out his index finger. They both walked, or more like running away from Chanyeol, into the woods and out of his sight. Chanyeol only managed to roll his eyes at the two weaklings.

He looked down at the child who was still crying silently, wiping his tears with the back of his hand. Well at least he does not cry loudly, that was beneficial to Chanyeol. After days of declining the child’s existence into his life, he eventually tried to welcome him.

“Hey kid”, the way he called out to him sounded harsh but who was him to care when he was talking to a younger child, and by that the son to a servant in his house.

“I have a name”, the kid responded by looking up to him, sniffing and sucking all the mucous and tears. His eyes wore glassy appearance with the presence of tears pooling up in his sockets. His puny nose was red and down his nostrils, streamed a line of viscous snot. _Disgusting_. Chanyeol clicked his tongue whilst constraining the miffed feeling.

“Then what is your name?”, he somehow felt his pride dropped lower than the layers of the earth ground.

“Baekhyun”.


	4. Fixed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone. Right now I am currently on my one month break so I'm really hoping for a faster update for you guys. Hopefully. Thank you so much to those who give kudos, bookmark and comment this story. Really thank you and love you :')

“Then...what is your name?”

“Baekhyun”

The kid named Baekhyun sat down on the ground as he collected pieces of his crashed airplane. He tried hard to suppress the sadness over his broken toy. He took parts of the broken woods and tried to assemble them back together again, which was impossible. Meanwhile Chanyeol who was standing right in front of him, looked down in silent as the kid struggled.

“It’s no use, just buy a new one”, Chanyeol said.

“Don’t want to”

“Why not?”

“Cause my father built this for me”

Chanyeol rolled his eyes, “Then ask your father to make another one”.

“My father’s gone”

_Oh._

That instantly sealed Chanyeol’s mouth for a moment. He was uncertain of what the kid meant by gone and hopefully it was not _that_ kind of gone. Until Baekhyun rose his head up to look at him, “He passed away when I was a baby”.

_Oh.._

“...oh”, it took a while for him to let out a word. That was, if ‘oh’ was even a word.

He deliberately came to a crouch position, meeting the same eye level as Baekhyun; whose watery eyes were focusing on his unfortunate toy.

“I’m sorry”, Chanyeol managed to throw another words.

“No it’s fine”, and within seconds Baekhyun was smiling again.

Chanyeol stared at him worldlessly, deep into his dark mirroring pupils. How amazing he was able to smile with eyes that filled with tears, on the verge of spilling. Now that Chanyeol started to spend more than a second looking properly at the child’s face, he noticed the slightest details of him. His really long eyelashes. Droopy puppy-like eyes. And his mole. It was not like he wanted to take note of Baekhyun’s insignificant features but it just managed to catch his attention. After seconds of contemplating with his inner thoughts, he decided to help Baekhyun regarding his broken airplane.

“I can help you fix it”

His voice were low and insincere, nonetheless Baekhyun was thrilled. “Really?”, this time the smile on his mouth were wide open, presenting a line of gapped deciduous teeth.

“Yeah...”, Chanyeol looked weirdly at him. Baekhyun’s sudden change of expression crept the 10 year old. Like another typical ordinary kid, his mood turned 180 degree in milliseconds. “You can just simply put strong glue and stick them back together again”, he continued.

“Awesome!”, Baekhyun wiped the tears in his eyes with smile that still attached on his face.

“Come follow me to my room, I have strong glue there”, the taller walked first, leaving the child as he struggled keeping all pieces in his small hands that curved into a bowl, adhering closer to his chest. Baekhyun ran in order to catch up to him.

“Why do you have a strong glue in your room?”, Baekhyun asked.

“Because I keep it for my arts and crafts class”, Chanyeol could not careless to look at the smaller.

“Hey, does this mean we are friends now?”, Baekhyun asked a second question, every second pacing up to catch to Chanyeol’s big steps.

Chanyeol pulled a face whilst raising the corner of his lips to the side. He shook his head, “Not quite”.

“Why not?”,

Unluckily this time, Baekhyun’s question was abandoned when Chanyeol walked straight ahead, ignoring him. He had lost interest in considering the child’s existence again, along with his 1001 questions.

A dissatisfying sigh was released through Baekhyun’s nose. He began to wonder what made the young master dislike him so much. He swallowed the grief of being rejected not once, neither nor twice, but for a multiple of times already and quietly trailed behind the young master. The atmosphere came to a silent. Nothing but the sound of crickets chirping and leaves dancing as it got hit by the breeze. For a moment, Chanyeol could breathe calmly again. However, that only lasted for less than a minute before another question was being thrown to him.

“What’s your name?”

One of Chanyeol’s eyes twitched in annoyance. Somehow, if he could just shove continuous numbers of apple inside his mouth just to keep the kid quiet for a day, he would.

“Hey do you hear m—“

“Do you ever close your mouth?”, Chanyeol stopped as he raised his voice at Baekhyun.

Baekhyun instantly shut his mouth as he stopped on the spot. He pressed both lips against each other whilst slowly looking down to the ground. With a clicked of his tongue, Chanyeol continued walking. A ‘sorry’ lightly hit his eardrum few seconds later.

“God!”, the taller spat in exasperation.

Baekhyun looked down to the broken woods in his hand-made basket and pouted. He later initiated his steps slowly. However, the gloominess clouding over his face immediately switched to a genuine smile as soon as he heard the other’s voice.

“It’s Chanyeol”

“Hi Chanyeol!”, and another attempt from Baekhyun failed to catch Chanyeol’s attention again obviously. The smaller walked faster in order to catch him that was a step ahead. A beaming smile stuck on his face ever since.

* * *

 

 

“Wait here for a moment, I go get the glue”, Chanyeol signalled for Baekhyun to sit on the yellow rug with orange linings design. Baekhyun did as he was told, slowly setting his butt on the soft texture while eyes scanning around the room with mouth opened ajar. Chanyeol’s room was like a child’s heaven filled with toys and action figures. They were all organized neatly on the wooden shelves as if they were for an exhibition. Just every toy Baekhyun thought of was there; robots, remote control car, tetris game and more.

“Your room is really neat”, Baekhyun praised.

“It’s because the maids came here every morning to clean it up”, Chanyeol explained as he made his way back to Baekhyun, bringing along with him his pencil case. He took out the glue he mentioned earlier and started working on the damaged toy. One thing fortunate was that the airplane ended up broken into huge pieces, thus easy to manufacture them back together.

Baekhyun mutely focused on Chanyeol’s working hands as the latter played with the glue and woods. One hour had passed and Chanyeol were still occupied with the fixing. The toy took longer than expected repairing and Baekhyun was already lying on his stomach. His eyes were still fixated on the pieces that starting to look more like his old airplane. A smile gradually appeared on his face. He laid his chin on his folded arms as his legs waving on the air like a dog wagging its tail in happiness.

Glue.

Stick them together.

Wait. More glue.

“Chanyeol”, Baekhyun was already lying on his back while facing the ceiling due to the boredom.

“What?”, not looking, Chanyeol answered.

“How old are you?”, he turned to face him.

Chanyeol did not answer his question but instead threw him back another question. “Why do you care?”. That made Baekhyun pouted and looked back at the ceiling. “I’m just curious”.

“Ten turning eleven”, Chanyeol answered shortly.

Instantly, Baekhyun looked back at him with a wide grin on his face. “I’m seven. Does this mean I have to call you hyung?”, he went back to his stomach-laid position and slid closer towards Chanyeol.

The young master felt his personal space got invaded when he pulled his head further away and pushed Baekhyun by his forehead with a finger. “No. Not in a million years”.

Baekhyun furrowed his eyebrows, confused. “Why not?”.

“You have a lot of questions do you?”, Chanyeol faced him with an obvious irritated facial expression. “Can you keep quiet for just ten minutes? Ten minutes please”.

Baekhyun glued his lips together and nodded his head, humming a low “Sorry” in between. He moved back to his original spot and lied back on his back. He promised himself to hold down any questions building up in his mind and stayed quiet. _10 minutes. Do not speak for 10 minutes Byun Baekhyun,_ the kid repeatedly reminded himself.

However not more than a minute later, Chanyeol spoke up, asking him a question. “Don’t you have any other friends living in the neighbourhood?”.

“Nope. I rarely go out of the mansion. My mom won’t let me”, Baekhyun answered whilst eyes attracted to the swirling patterns on the light blue ceiling.

“Why won’t your mom let you out?”

“I don’t know maybe because—“, then it hit the smaller. “Hey I thought I’m not supposed to talk”, he sat up straight and looked at Chanyeol as if it was his fault for making him broke his own promise. The older only shrugged as he looked at him.

“You made me talk”, Baekhyun pointed.

Chanyeol only scoffed while rolling his eyes. He concentrated his attention back to Baekhyun’s toy, eyes glancing to its owner from time to time. Meanwhile the younger were playing with the thin hair of the furry rug, combing and caressing it with his fingers.

“One last question” Chanyeol demanded.

“What?”, Baekhyun stopped his caressing.

“Why do you still want to be friends with me? I treated you badly”, he gave his hands a rest as he pulled it away from the working area and moved to the back as it supported his weight.

“Because I’m scared I’ll end up being lonely”.

Chanyeol knitted both eyebrows together in a mere confusion. “Huh?”, he wanted to laugh at Baekhyun’s answer for having a puerile sense. Though viewing from different angle, he may have a point. No friends means no accompany, thus no accompany definitely means lonely; as what Chanyeol thought so.

“My mom asked me to make friends so I won’t be lonely”, Baekhyun explained.

 _Yet his mom don’t let him play outside,_ Chanyeol internally quizzed himself.

 

 

After what it seemed like half an hour later, Chanyeol finally put back the final pieces together. He sighed in relief looking at the fixed toy right before his eyes. Although it was not as splendid as it was before it got damaged, Chanyeol was pretty contented with the outcome. He mentally patted his back for the successful project. One fact about the young master of the Park family; arts and crafts was one of his pleasurable pastimes other than mathematics and reading.

“Hey kid—”, his words were hanging as he saw Baekhyun lying on the rug quite comfortably with eyes closed.

Probably due to being too engrossed in his work, he did not realize when the smaller started to drift asleep. He narrowed both eyes as his hand curled into a flicking form, drawing it close to Baekhyun’s forehead. His attempt was delayed a few seconds when his eyes laid on the eyelashes of the unconscious. It really drew attention of how lengthy it was. Not that Chanyeol as if a girl, has to be jealous of not owning one but more like – _it looks good on him,_ he thought, only to realize later what his subconscious brain was jabbering on.

Flicked.

“Ouch!”, Baekhyun’s hands went straight to the pain sensation right on the centre of his forehead.

Even Chanyeol was surprised of how hard he flicked the sleeping child’s forehead by the thick skin-slapping sound. He assumed it would leave a mark, definitely. Baekhyun pulled a sad face as he caressed his forehead that was growing red. Chanyeol snickered as he glanced at the red fingerprint, _thought so._

“Wake up sleepy head, it’s done”, he placed the airplane right in front of Baekhyun.

Baekhyun’s pout vanished in a split second and a smile blossomed. His small eyes somehow appeared twice the size as it sparkled upon looking at his fixed airplane. It was nicely standing.

“Awesome!”, he merely screamed as he was reaching out to hold it.

“No not yet, the glue is not properly dry yet”, Chanyeol ceased the younger’s hands from getting any closer.

Baekhyun’s eyes turned to him instead, smiling widely from ear to ear as his face flushed in colour. Chanyeol pulled an uncomfortable look on his face. “What?”, he asked at the excited person in front of him.

“Can I hug you?”, Baekhyun was beaming and red. “...as my thank you”, he continued.

“No”, Chanyeol straightly declined. He was not exaggerating when he thought Baekhyun’s eyes really sparkled as soon as he noticed his toy was fixed. Small amount of tears gathered in his eyes as it narrowed along when he grinned.

“Please”

Chanyeol rolled his eyes to the other side before deliberately agreed to Baekhyun’s request with a slight nod.

“Thank you!”


	5. Evening Party.

_Present._

Chanyeol silently stared out of the large window from inside his room, viewing a flat land still inside the Park’s territory. There were two large white canopies aligned closely together to perform a great coverage from the afternoon sun. Servants were running in and out of the tents, engaged with their services on preparing the tables and chairs, foods and decoration. The males were lifting tables whilst the females were arranging cutleries. Chanyeol’s fingers started to continuously tapping the glass of the window. His eyes were waiting for someone to walk out of there.

Five minutes ago as he was pensive into the busy surrounding, someone captured his attention. His eyes caught Baekhyun walking beside Mr. Kim, probably discussing on the arrangements of the tables by the movements of his hands. A smile unknowingly popped on Chanyeol’s face starring into Baekhyun’s adorableness when he scrunched his face due to the bright sun. Mr. Kim and him continued talking as they walked further under the canopies, disappearing out of Chanyeol’s sight and at this moment, it was his fifth time sighing, waiting. Baekhyun was nowhere in view and he just wished to be down there looking around, specifically at Baekhyun.

 Chanyeol’s parents decided to make a small evening party regarding their prince’s graduation and returned from London, hence the busy atmosphere downstairs.

His eyes increased in size as he smiled when the anticipated small figure walked out of the canopy. The smile managed to stay for a short one second before it was replaced with a small frown. Baekhyun was walking with two other female servants. In his hands each were a small vase, one filled with roses while the other with orchids. He was laughing with the two younger maids, deciding on which flowers to be chosen to be put on the tables as decoration. Chanyeol’s cheek twitched in annoyance on what laid in his viewpoint. He never receive such treatment from the younger and he admitted, he felt jealous.

It had already been three days since his returned from London and he still have not speak a word with Baekhyun other than a solemn and boring master’s demand and the other nodding with a yes. No true and meaningful words were shared between the two. Furthermore, it was obvious how the servant tried to distant and avoid himself from being anywhere near Chanyeol. It left his mind confused and his heart dejected from this disregard circumstances. However tonight, he planned to approach him. He wanted all these to stop. He needed explanations for his unanswered thoughts.

 

* * *

 

 

A soothing classic music was heard on the background as Chanyeol walked passed by several guests. He had been smiling, nodding and talking nonstop for up to two hours since the evening party started and unfortunately the guests did not seemed to decrease in amount. He stared at his beloved parents from where he stood, busy treating and sharing laughter with their friends. His eyes later scanned the surrounding and smiled, feeling impressed. The servants did a great job in preparing the party, especially Mr. Kim as the head servant. The food served was in variety and absolutely pleasing, not to forget the decoration was also on point despite it being a small party.

After a few more minutes on talking with the guests, he decided to take a break. He sneakily dashed off of the party into the mansion without a trace. _I’ll come back in half an hour,_ he internally reminded himself.

Walking up the stairs, he stopped when he noticed a presence. His eyes laid on a pair of frightened eyes, as if the owner was not prepared. Baekhyun’s eyes.

The servant at the moment, was on his way down the stairs when he saw the young master. He averted his eyes away before continued walking down the stairs, bowing slightly as he passed by Chanyeol. It irked the master so badly at how he was treated.

Before Baekhyun could walk any further, he stopped his pace, “You should not be here, please go back to the party”.

“The lights too bright my head hurt, I’m going to take a short thirty minutes break in my room”, Chanyeol lied about his head being in pain. He literally wanted a short break from all the talking and bowing.

“Make sure to come back”, and Baekhyun paced down the stairs, only to stop after three steps down when—“Bring me a glass of water to my room, now”, Chanyeol requested, not looking at Baekhyun as he hiked up the stairs in a slow manner.

“I’ll bring a maid to get you a glass of water in a—“, the servant’s monotone voice were ceased with Chanyeol’s stern and demanding voice.

“I don’t want the maid, I want you to do it”

There was a short silence between the two before Baekhyun merely stuttered on his words, “I’ll be there...in a minute”. He maintained a cool and composed demeanour as he deliberately left without a word.

 

 

Chanyeol took a seat on his large king-sized bed as he released a long sigh. He felt the dryness in his mouth due to the endless talking and smiling. His eyes stared into the window, realizing it was already dark outside. Another sigh was heaved not too long after that. He was anxious with his decision on interrogating the old friend about his eccentric attitude towards him. Would Baekhyun stayed quiet again? Would he spare a little emotion like last time or remain inexpressive like all the time. It all remained a mystery until he tried to approach the little guy in a few minutes. He bit the bottom of his lip as his gaze stroke the floor with a frown. _It’s now or never._

The knocks on the door concluded his lengthy thoughts and he looked to the door. The door was opened and Baekhyun entered the room, leaving the door unconnected to its frame.

“Please close the door properly”, Chanyeol asked.

Baekhyun who was already half-way, stopped and made a quizzical-kind of-annoyed face, “Why?”.

Chanyeol raised a brow at him as he was offended with the servant’s behaviour. It caused Baekhyun to instantly apologize and went to close the door. The master exhaled another breath as he felt disappointed with himself. It was not like he wanted to have this master-servant relationship with Baekhyun but the younger gave him no choice. He acted like shit because of Baekhyun’s inferior attitude towards him and nevertheless, he could not blame him.

“I need to talk to you”, he said as he stared at the glass of water on Baekhun’s hand being placed on the nightstand.

“What is it?”, it sounded cold to Chanyeol’s ears, but then like the other ever be so warm around him other than seven years ago.

“Explain to me what is wrong with your attitude?”, his voice were low and threatening it leave goosebumps on Baekhyun’s skin though he tried to act all strong and unaffected like all the time.

“What’s wrong with my attitude, Master?”, he gulped when Chanyeol instantly stood and walked nearer to him who was standing beside the bed. He looked down and saw Chanyeol’s feet right in front of his.

“Your attitude towards me. Why are you treating me like I’m a stranger?”, this time there was a little spark of desperate in his yet harsh voice.

“What do you mean? I...I’m not treating you like a stranger master”, Baekhyun failed to maintain his solemn role when he started to stutter. His fingers were lightly fidgeting against each other and his eyes stayed to the floor.

“Tch”, Chanyeol glared to the side, had enough of this fruitless act.

“I thought I’ve told you not to call me master”, Chanyeol cleared out but Baekhyun stayed hushed and still, not daring to meet him in the eyes. The situation was graveyard silent, the butler scared to make a move.

Not getting any response, Chanyeol called out to him with a soft voice.

“Look at me”

It took awhile for Baekhyun to calm his hastened heartbeat. He relaxed his tensing face with a breath or two and looked at the master’s eyes, glaring.

 _Not with that kind of eyes._ It aggravated Chanyeol so much to look into those insulting stare. It was not the stare he anticipated after calling out to him with an emotion, hoping the other to answer him with one too. Howbeit, Baekhyun’s response heated his mentality even more.

“Baekhyun!”

“WHAT!”, his scream caught Chanyeol off guard. However, that was not going to stop him from exploding.

“Stop with that fucking attitude of yours. Do you think I’m that stupid for not noticing you avoiding me all the time and not asking you the reason behind it? Just tell me what made you treat me like I’m someone unfamiliar to you? As if all those times when we were kids weren’t exist at all”

“Stop”, Baekhyun said in a normal voice through his gritted teeth.

“NO! I’m not gonna stop talking until you explain to me”

Chanyeol was all shouting at Baekhyun’s face until he came nearer, eyes meeting eyes and whispered, “Don’t act like we never had sex before”.

Unprepared, he received a slap from the other.


	6. It hurts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the very verryy late update. To compensate, here is a 3292 words update.   
> Do leave comments because I love reading your feedback. :)   
> Thank you to all that leave kudos!

Chanyeol looked down to the floor, perplexed over what just happened. The impact on his left cheek hurt both the skin and his heart. As a matter of fact the heart hurt thousand times more. He felt the pain atrociously deepened as the pang on the cheek disappeared within time.

 _Did Baekhyun just slap me?_ He questioned himself, still baffled.

Chanyeol’s eyes threateningly moved to the guy right in front of him. Those eyes were filled with pounds of dissatisfaction and frustration. Disappointment. He later aggressively grabbed on Baekhyun’s wrist and neared it to the younger’s face, “What was this for?”. The aching of his heart had triggered a side of him he never wanted Baekhyun to see.

Baekhyun tried to withdrew his hand away from him, zipping his mouth from answering the question. He knew he slapped Chanyeol hard when he felt the sinful pain dispersed through his palm. Even him were confused with the abrupt action. It all happened in the speed of lightning. Before Baekhyun knew it, his motor function stimulated first right before his brain could cease it, and had already slapped the master’s face.

“Let go!”, Baekhyun fought back, raising his voice slightly.

Chanyeol pushed him to a nearby wall, hand clenching harder on his wrist. The ruthless grip managed to cause Baekhyun’s palm to become pallor. The bigger guy put half of his weight onto Baekhyun, making the smaller sandwiched between him and the wall.

“I said let go, it hurts!!”, Baekhyun faced the side when there was a lack of space between them. His face screamed repelled and uncomfortable. A pinch of warm breeze lightly hit his skin and that was how Baekhyun knew how close they were. He automatically held his breath when he noticed Chanyeol’s face was a mere inch in front of him. One more move and their lips could possibly touch.

“You don’t think my cheek feel hurt after getting a slap from you?”, Chanyeol whispered in a menacing tone. _Heart_ was what supposed to take place for the _cheek_ in the sentence but he refused to use it.

Never once Baekhyun looked at him in the eyes after the slap. He was awfully afraid of the young master, thus stayed looking down the whole time.

“Let go please”, this time his voice changed 180 degree, sounding weak and defeated.  

Chanyeol narrowed his eyes in discontent. He still hasn’t got the answer to his bewilderment. His head was still accumulated with thousands of questions that only Baekhyun can unravel. He wanted to continue on his intention to make the other speak, when suddenly the smaller started to choke on his own breath.

Chanyeol got worried when he noticed Baekhyun coughing dryly, face as pale as snow.

“I can’t…breathe”, Baekhyun tried although he was obviously suffocating.

Chanyeol lifted his body from squashing him onto the wall, which made Baekhyun fell to the floor when his knees went lethargic.

“Baekhyun?!”, Chanyeol crouched down to support Baekhyun’s body that was already swaying weak. His breath hitched in discomfort.

 _No this can’t be._ Chanyeol shook his head, not wanting what his mind was concluding. He got more concerned when Baekhyun’s breathing was short and wheezing, as if something choked him.

“…Yeol”, Baekhyun desperately called out to him. His head unintentionally rested on Chanyeol’s chest, hand tugging weakly onto his tuxedo blazer as if his life depends on it. He tried to inhale the best amount of air he could but failed miserably.

Chanyeol’s hands quickly rummaged through Baekhyun’s pockets to see if there was any presence of a small bottle he’d usually keep with him all the time. He felt as if his heart collapsed when he found every pocket to be empty.

“In…my…hahh…room”, Baekhyun tried so hard to inspire every remaining oxygen in the room.

Then suddenly, it hit the master. “Wait here”, Chayeol said before swiftly running to his bathroom instead, hoping to find an inhaler in one of the cabinet. He remembered back in his childhood years, he would remind the maids to always prepare an inhaler inside his bathroom, and to change it every moment after it reach its expiry date.

_Please be there please be there._

He quickly opened the cabinet and released a bomb of relief when he saw the needed inhaler, new and unopened. Quickly spinning the puffer to search for its expiry date, he ran towards Baekhyun after found out it was still in usable form.

He assisted Baekhyun who was already lying on the floor, to sit in an upright position. Immediately he shook the inhaler and sprayed it to the open air twice before shoving it into Baekhyun’s mouth. He pushed the canister once as the guy in his arm inhaled along, desperately trying to hold his breath in order to let the drug dispersed to every parts of his lungs. After a silent ten seconds, he pushed the canister again for the second time. Baekhyun inspired the drug deeply. And they wait. The wait was torturing for him and Baekhyun, worse for the latter.   

Chanyeol gently stroke Baekhyun’s back despite knowing there was no benefit to it. That was what Mrs. Byun usually did to console him whenever he had asthma attack.

After a while, the servant started to breathe normally again and Chanyeol could eventually exhaled a lengthy breath of relief. No one knows how much he thanked God at that moment for letting his friend taste the air again.

“Baekhyun?”, both his hands guarded Baekhyun’s shoulder, giving support to the fragile body as it can topple anytime.

“Let me go”, Baekhyun whispered. His voice was shaking as it was still recovering from his dyspnea. His gaze had always maintained to the floor and his eyes were filled with tears that could leak anytime with a blink or two.

Chanyeol worried whatever action he made next could make the delicate guy break down and cry. Hence he only responded with a hum, eyes never left Baekhyun’s pale face that was slowly recovering.

With that Chanyeol removed his hands off of the tensed shoulder. He only managed to look as the petite figure pushed himself to stand up and walk.

Baekhyun ran out of the room, not sharing any more words nor glance with him. The sound of the door being shut hard somehow scraped Chanyeol’s heart. He eyed the inhaler that was still in his grip and clenched it tightly. He probably needed to prepare more of this.

_Why is your asthma keep getting worse?_

 

* * *

 

 

_Past._

A seven year old Baekhyun skipped happily across the columns of orchid flowers in the garden behind the mansion. It was an April afternoon where the sun was shining bright, the clouds were just in the right amount and the weather was just perfect for the little Baekhyun. He just heard from his mother that young master Chanyeol had arrived home from school then ran straight to the backyard. His eyes wildly scanned left and right each meter he crossed the wide flower field.

“Where is Chanyeol? Where is Chanyeol?”, the child chanted with youthful energy.

In the meantime, Chanyeol found a favorable spot to chill with his book. In his hand, was a new story book he got as a present from his homeroom teacher due to achieving first place in science quiz (again). Schooling in Korea gave huge advantage to him as all the syllabuses in the year he was in, practically had been taught while he was in London. Basically, he was a year forward as he entered the Korean education system. Despite such convenience, he still found it a little irritating and boring to be acing all subjects effortlessly. He wanted challenge.

“Aha! Chanyeol-ahhh!”

And that was how his challenge of the day initiated. He merely sighed the moment he heard his name being called from afar by a high-pitched voice. The voice was too familiar for him to turn around and identify the owner. Not to mention, the fact that the younger casually called him without honorifics aggravated his level of annoyance. Although he once told him not to call him _hyung_ , still.

 _Don’t simply call me by my name you servant,_ he mentally hissed.

“I’ve been looking all over the garden for you. Finally I’ve foun—“

“Go away”, Chanyeol cut, not anticipating Baekhyun’s words.

The gasping child, due to a mild running to get to the person he adored most, curled his lips into an unhappy pout. “Why?”, he asked.

“Can’t you see I’m reading? I need some peace and quiet”, Chanyeol exclaimed.

“Then I’ll be quiet”, the younger placed his index finger to his lips.

“You’re nothing but loud”, since the moment Chanyeol had been approached, he never once leave his eyes from the book.

“and a nuisance”, he added, flipping to the next page.

“New-cents?”, Baekhyun didn’t quite get the word he first time heard. The child’s attention later went to the book on Chanyeol’s hands instead. The navy blue front cover with a sketch of a dragon fascinated him. There were some words written but Baekhyun couldn’t care less since he could not read. The fierce drawing of the dragon stole his attention the most.

“Woahh what are you reading? Can you tell me the story? The dragon look awesome!!”, Baekhyun inserted his bubblish and giddy mode. He went and sat comfortably near Chanyeol, which made the latter felt no other than uncomfortable.

The older clicked his tongue to display his gawkiness, “Read it by yourself”.

“But I don’t know how to read”

“Then learn!”, Chanyeol eventually looked at Baekhyun in the eyes, though sending daggers. His voice was slightly increased, resulting the younger to close his mouth not daring to talk back.

Baekhyun averted his eyes to the ground, plucking the grass silently. It was noiseless and peaceful as Chanyeol wanted it to be. He calmly read the book although his mind wandered to somewhere else— It was Baekhyun who occupied his thoughts. _Was I too harsh on him?_

“I just…wanna play with you”, Baekhyun deliberately started after a while.

“Go play with someone else”, Chanyeol tried to focused on the story, only to get interrupted by every questions sent from the other.

“I thought we are friends”

“Who said so?”

“Well…you fixed my airplane”

“That doesn’t mean we are friends”

“Really? It doesn’t?”

“It’s called helping”, Chanyeol rolled his eyes in exasperation and tried to continue the story, re-reading the same sentence for the third time. _The blue dragon with red eyes adhered himself to the crystal wall…_

Baekhyun who was still abnormally close to him, finally decided to scoot further back. He elongated his neck and look around for an activity. _Stay still_ was not in this seven year old’s dictionary. His eyes narrowed into tiny slits as he scanned around the garden, searching for something fun to do.

 _What is he up to now?_ Chanyeol found himself staring at the child as he stood up and went behind the bushes. He squeezed his eyes close and tried to ignore it, reading back the words printed on the page. _The blue dragon with red eyes…_

After few minutes of reading and attempting to ignore the busy Baekhyun, Chanyeol finally lost to it. The swishing and rustling sound of Baekhyun doing God knows what aggravated him to the max. And so he closed the book with force, exhaled a breath to calm down.

“Hey Kid!”, he shouted from where he was, wondering what Baekhyun was doing.

A head emerged from the bushes, “Baekhyun”, the child signaled Chanyeol to call by his name.

“Baekhyun right…I have a game we can play”, Chanyeol tried to smile.

Hearing the word _game_ made Baekhyun jumped out from the bushes and ran towards him. “I love game! What do we play?”, he asked.

“You know the fountain near the kitchen? Let’s race to there”, Chanyeol nodded his head.

The excitement on Baekhyun’s face abruptly vanished, “But my mom said I can’t run too much”.

“If you win, we can become friends”, the taller kid declared a little too haughtily and Baekhyun got all enthusiastic again.

“But if I win, promise not to bother me”, Chanyeol’s eyes narrowed as his face turned serious. “Ever”, he ended with a threatening glare that gradually turned into a creepy smile.

His actions made Baekhyun felt nervous, yet the smaller held tight to his innocent goal. _I want to become his friend!_

“I’ll win!”, a persistent child he was, he immediately accepted the challenge despite knowing his mother’s warning.

 

“One…two…”, Chanyeol counted and both of them blasted off as soon as he reached the number three. They ran along the lines of flowers, jumping and shifting to avoid any rocks or wild vines that blocked their path. Even with a book in his hand, Chanyeol could still run effortlessly with those gifted long legs. As for Baekhyun, he started one second late and was behind the young master by a meter. The distance grew as Chanyeol increased his speed, not looking back.

“Wait!”, the smaller called out as he battled to catch up. He tried to accelerate his pace and yet Chanyeol was way ahead of him.

The taller looked back, “Slow poke~”, he singsonged. He speeded up, leaving nothing but dust and laughter to the child struggling behind.

After seconds of running, Chanyeol eventually saw from afar the anticipated fountain painted white with little plants creeping up from the ground. If it was not for Mr. Hwan the house gardener, the stubborn vines would already conquer the whole fountain.

Chanyeol slowed down and looked behind, expecting a losing Baekhyun in view. Even after a halt to catch some air, the kid was still nowhere to be seen. A battle between his evil side and good side was conducted, to choose between ending the game as he reached the finish line or go check on the kid if anything bad happen. Usually his intuition would tell him to ignore it and continue the book. He won anyway. But today, the good side of him triumphed over the dark.

Initiating with a sigh of regret, he started running back the trail. _What a nuisance,_ he clicked his tongue whilst returning back deeper into the garden. Then he saw it, someone was kneeling on the ground and he confirmed it was no other than Byun Baekhyun. He gasped when he saw the small body fully collapsed to the ground and as fast as lightning, ran up to reach him.

“Baekhyun!”, Chanyeol’s voice was obviously worried.

Baekhyun was lying on his side, mouth opened wide desperately gasping for air. One of his hands was clutching hard to his chest, “…hurts”. He shut his teary eyes. The child felt the tightness within and it was too painful for a seven year old to bear. It felt as if hundreds of bricks piled up upon his chest.

“What’s wrong?”, clueless of the situation he was in, Chanyeol frantically took Baekhyun’s head into his arms hoping it would help even if it was just a little. He started to sweat as soon as Baekhyun started crying. The crying was disturbed due to the kid being unable to breathe properly.

“Om..ma”, the little one managed to whisper in between his tears.

Chanyeol swiftly carried the child on his back and sprint as fast as he could to the mansion.

“Omma…”, he heard Baekhyun weakly called. He really sounded as if he was dying and Chanyeol didn’t want that.

“Hang on, we’re almost there”, he said in panic.

Once reaching inside the house from the back door, he ran straight to the main kitchen where Baekhyun’s mother would usually be.

“Mrs. Byun! Mrs. Byun!”, he shouted, looking left and right as he made his way through the spacious kitchen. Baekhyun was not moving anymore and it terrified him.

“MRS. BYUN!”, he screamed in distraught.

“My my, what is it young mast—”, Baekhyun’s mother appeared from one of the door and went speechless when she saw Chanyeol almost crying. He was profusely sweating and on his back was a small child she believed her son.

“What happen?”, she went to him and carried her baby in her arms.

“We were…running and…and…he fell…and said his chest hurts”, Chanyeol explained in between his vigorous panting.

Mrs. Byun went to one of the cabinet in the kitchen and opened to reveal a weird shape bottle. It was Chanyeol’s first time encountering such bottle. She quickly yet calmly sprayed the content into Baekhyun’s mouth and monitored him to breathe. The young master worriedly looked as the younger respire weakly, body all trembling.

“There, there…slowly”, Mrs. Byun’s voice was soothing to Baekhyun’s ears. He started to breathe normally again. The mother wiped the tears smearing her son’s red cheeks and left a remedying peck. Baekhyun lightly laid his head on his mother’s chest, breathing deeply as she caressed his back.

“Is he gonna be okay?”, Chanyeol questioned all of sudden.

Mrs. Byun finally was able to smile and nodded to his question. “He’ll be fine. He just needs to rest”.

“What happen?”

“He can’t run too much”

“Why?”, this time when Baekhyun was all quiet and weak, Chanyeol took over his role on the never-ending queries.

“He had asthma. It’s a condition where his lungs could become weak when he did heavy activity”, Mrs. Byun explained slowly and clearly so the young master able grasped it.

“Like running?”, another question was thrown.

“Yes like running”, the woman nodded.

Baekhyun started whimpering and the mother straightly knew the child wanted to be taken to his bed. “Now, I’m going to take him to our room. Please change your school uniform master before going out and play again”. Mrs. Byun stood up with Baekhyun in her arms.

Chanyeol looked down to his school uniform and remembered that he straight went out to the garden as soon as he arrived home, not wanting to approach Baekhyun. He suddenly felt bad for causing Baekhyun in such condition. He looked towards Mrs. Byun as she walked her way out of the kitchen, meeting eyes with the younger Byun. Those eyes looking back at him were still teary and weak.

“Umm Mrs. Byun!”, he called as he ran towards her.

He stood in front of her and made a perfect 90 degree bow, “I was the one who asked Baekhyun for a race challenge. It was my fault, I’m sorry!”.

His action made the mother in the state of amazement. Amazed of such well-mannered master, to acknowledge the Koreans formal etiquettes only within few weeks of staying in the country. It left a smile on her face.

Still bowing, head filled with anxiety and curiosity over the quiet respond, Chanyeol closed his eyes hoping to be forgiven. Until he felt a soft ruffling of his hair and a chuckle. “It’s fine Chanyeol. As a matter of fact, thank you for saving Baekhyun”, she held by Chanyeol’s chin to allow him to stand straight again.

“If it wasn’t for you carrying him on your back to the mansion, who knows what will happen to him”, Mrs. Byun smiled ever so purely, batting those long eyelashes Chanyeol adored.

Chanyeol nodded with a smile and stared as Mrs. Byun continued walking out of the kitchen, into a corridor that leads to where all the servants’ rooms were located. From afar, he saw Baekhyun rose his face from buried into his mother’s neck just to look at Chanyeol.

After a few gulps and hesitancy, Chanyeol eventually decided to lift a hand and gave the kid a small wave. The two small hands that were wrapping around Mrs. Byun neck, then waved back at him although rather sickly.

The waves continued until Baekhyun was no longer in Chanyeol’s sight.


	7. Lost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am very sorry for the late update. Been very busy these past few months. I hope you still remember this Chanbaek story. Please do leave comment on how you like the story so far :)

_Past._

  
Baekhyun peeped from afar, hiding behind a tree. He stared silently as the young master flipped a page of the familiar storybook. Chanyeol was sitting under a shady tree, enjoying the serene moment with the book that had been stuck in his hands since this morning. It was Saturday 4 PM and Byun Baekhyun had been spying on him since 3:43 PM. 

  
“You’re not gonna stay there forever right?”, Chanyeol finally voiced out. 

  
He noticed the presence a while ago but remained silent to see until when Baekhyun could stay behind the tree and not approaching him. Nevertheless, it turned out that he was the one losing patience and eventually called out to him first. After receiving zero response, Chanyeol turned his head back with a frown stuck on his face. The expected small figure was not there in sight but only the trees. Then his eyes trailed on the grass and saw a shadow, lying against the tree with a hand scratching his head. He scoffed as he found it lame yet adorable. 

  
“Hiaa Byun Baekhyun I can see you from the shadow…stupid”, he whispered the last part, not wanting Baekhyun to hear it.

  
“That’s not nice”, Baekhyun finally stepped into the scene. 

  
“Huh?”, Chanyeol was not looking.

  
“Calling people stupid”, Baekhyun’s hands crossed. 

  
 _Oops_ , he heard it. Chanyeol finally looked at him in the eyes. He felt relieved to see Baekhyun standing healthily again, fit as a fiddle and probably as energetic as always. He could not hide the smile that had been tickling his heart for permission to appear on his face. 

  
“Sorry”, he smiled. 

  
Baekhyun was crept out by the abrupt smile and looked at the young master weirdly. 

  
The smile was replaced with Chanyeol’s everyday-annoyed face, “What?”.

  
“You smiled”, Baekhyun stated the obvious. 

  
“And…”, the older raised a brow.  

  
“It’s scary”, Baekhyun casually admitted, resulting Chanyeol to twitched one eye in irritation. _I’m going to flick his forehead._

  
“It’s the first time I see you smile”, Baekhyun later smiled as he sat opposite to him. 

  
It was only for ten seconds before Chanyeol had fully lost interest in conversing with him. He rolled his eyes before setting his attention back on the book, “Whatever”.

  
“You should smile more often Chanyeol”, Baekhyun ended with a chuckle. 

  
The young master gave him the silent treatment, eyes never left the words printed on the book although his thoughts were somewhere else. The younger perceived that Chanyeol wanted some peace and quiet to enjoy his book, and so he stayed muted. He sat there wordlessly, admiring the blue dragon sketched on the front cover of the book. 

  
“Why?”, Chanyeol started.

  
“Hmm?”, Baekhyun was confused. 

  
“Why didn’t you tell me about your asthma?”, the young master finally put down his book and paid full attention to Baekhyun. His tone and facial expression obviously stated how angry he was. Baekhyun felt the displeasure eyes staring hard at him and so only looked down. 

  
“I…I want to win the race so that we can be friends…like what you promised”. The kid’s answer was too innocent it left a pang of guiltiness in Chanyeol’s heart, yet he was irritated. 

  
“Are you crazy? You could have died!”, this time his voice raised a volume. 

  
Baekhyun pressed both his lips together, perplexed over Chanyeol’s abrupt enragement. His eyes glued to the ground feeling dejected, “Sorry”.

  
“No, don’t apologize”, Chanyeol puffed out his angry red cheeks. 

  
Being a kid he was, Baekhyun could not handle the tense situation. He never gets scold by anyone other than his mother. Moreover, Mrs. Byun rarely raised her voice at him since he is a very well-behaved child. He tried to suck it up yet his sensitive seven-year-old heart always managed to demolish everything. Knowing that he might tear up any moment, he stood up and walk away from that place.

  
Chanyeol secretly looked over as the child dragged his feet away, obviously feeling discouraged. “Hey!”, he called. 

  
“Yeah?”, It took a while for the kid to turned around and responded. 

  
Chanyeol’s breath hitched in remorseful, meeting eyes with Baekhyun’s teary ones. His button nose was seen red as a tomato, nostrils flaring wide as he inhaled deeply. It was clear how the younger was trying his best to hold back the tears that were at the edge of his throat. 

  
The young master glared to the side, “I’ve finished the first part of Crystal Moon. I can tell you the story until where I stop, that is if you want to hear it”. He raised the book in his left hand.

  
Baekhyun stayed emotionless.

  
“But you can leave if you don’t wanna hear—“

  
“I want to!”, Baekhyun replied with sudden excitement. He ran back to Chanyeol and sat where he sat earlier, “I want to hear it”, he clarified. The smile Chanyeol secretly long anticipated appeared on his face once again. 

  
“Okay. The story begins in this kingdom called Noxus where dragons…”

  
Just like that afterward, their relationship grew closer. Chanyeol did not mind every time Baekhyun came to play with him as long as he stays quiet whenever Chanyeol was on his book. He would continue sharing the dragon tale part by part as the younger obediently listened. Each and every day, Chanyeol increases his amount of words talking to Baekhyun apart from telling the story. He showed his smile once in a while as Baekhyun laughs pretty much all the time. 

  
However, Chanyeol still kept the master-servant relationship between them. He knew his place and wanted Baekhyun to know his too. He would act all egoistic and arrogant whenever he felt the need to and the younger would just blindly smile and approved everything.

  
The abandoned park right outside the back gate was now officially their hideout. Initially, it was Chanyeol’s hiding spot, until Baekhyun discovered where he was and started to chill there along too. 

* * *

 

Months passed by as the summer season awaken. Every tree was now covered with its green leaves that dance along the warm breeze. Chanyeol was inside the car, also enjoying the warm air outside the window. His eyes then starred to the book he was holding in his hand as a soft smile crept on his face. He tried to deny his happiness to see the little guy at home, but he knew himself better. He just could not wait to get back home and reveal to Baekhyun the final chapter of Crystal Moon. 

  
“Can you please hurry?”, he asked the driver nicely as he could not contain his excitement. 

  
Once arriving at the front gate of his house, his happiness went clouded by the bewilderment feeling when he saw an ambulance drifting out of the house and went pass by him. 

  
“Why is there an ambulance?”, he asked the one who was driving.

  
“I’m not quite sure Mr. Park”, the man in his 40s frowned, also in confusion. 

  
Once they reached inside the mansion, Chanyeol saw his mother running towards him. Her face displayed grimace and he did not like that. He also scanned the whole expressions of the servants that gathered by the Foyer and not a single one showed a smile. The aura of the room felt dark and gawky it made him feel nauseated.

  
“Chanyeol”, Mrs. Park surprised him by cupping his cheeks. Her hands were cold and sweaty.

  
“Mom, what happened? Why was there an ambulance?”, he questioned.

  
Both her thumbs caressed the warm cheeks of his son. “Baekhyun’s mother…”, she started gradually in a whispery voice.

  
“Baekhyun’s mother is no longer here”

  
Chanyeol squeezed his eyes, “What?”, he wanted clarification.

  
“Baekhyun’s mother just passed away”

  
Chanyeol’s mother sighed in distress. Her eyes went watery and Chanyeol could tell it was not the first time. As the master who was very close with the head servant, to a point where she considered Mrs. Byun as her friend, she felt pitiful especially towards Baekhyun. 

  
“They said it was a heart attack. When I arrived home, Mrs. Byun heart was already—“

  
“Where’s Baekhyun?”, Chanyeol cut off his mother.

  
“Baekhyun he…he ran off somewhere once his mother was taken away from him. All the maids are still trying to search for him—“, again Chanyeol let his mother’s words hanged as he ran towards the kitchen.

  
“Where’re you going?”, she shouted.

  
“I think I know where Baekhyun is!”, Chanyeol replied in the same shouting tone.

  
“Okay, make sure he’s safe and bring him home quickly”

  
“Don’t worry mom”, Chanyeol replied not looking back. 

  
He knew where Baekhyun could be hiding— no doubt it was at their favourite hideout spot. Leaving his storybook along with his school bag at the kitchen, he rushed across the wide field. His heart was beating as fast as his feet could run. He was already out of breath but comforting Baekhyun was more important at the moment. 

  
Once reaching the old playground, he could finally release a sigh of slight comfort when he laid his eyes on the little guy. Baekhyun was sitting on one of the old rusty benches. He was hugging to his knees, face buried in between them as Chanyeol heard the soft sobs as he walked nearer. 

  
“Baekhyun?”

  
Baekhyun is special. He could be the loudest kid when he is happy, but the most silent thing when he is crying. For a seven year old child, Chanyeol thought he was special and it irritates him as if he held all those tears in until the pain died down on its own. He was at most unsatisfied when Baekhyun sobbed quietly and his tears would dry away as the signature smile slowly reappeared. This had been going on and he could not help but noticed it after weeks of spending time with him— and it irritated him so much.

  
“Baekhyun”, he tried again, pulling onto one of Baekhyun’s hands in order to see his face.

  
The other only pushed him away with a whimper.

  
“I’m sorry about your mother”, he said but did not get any response from the other. “Baekhyun-ah”, he tried again pulling on his wrist but failed when the child slapped his hand away. 

  
This time it really got the young master. 

  
“Let me see your face! You don’t need to hide it. Just cry if you want to!!”, he screamed as he went aggressive, forcing the little one to reveal his face. 

  
“Cry it out!!”, again he raised his voice at him.

  
“Let go of me!”, Baekhyun for the first time, voiced out to him as he pushed hard the young master. 

  
Twitching his nose in anger, Chanyeol replied back by giving Baekhyun the same push he received earlier, only his was twice stronger, making the younger fell off of the bench. 

  
“Ouch!”, Baekhyun screamed as he looked over his scraped erythematous knees. His lips curled downwards, “Ow..”, he softly voiced as tears started to accumulate. 

  
Looking at Baekhyun’s bleeding knees, Chanyeol came nearer, about to apologize when the other quickly pushed him back hard on the ground. It made him fell on his back as Baekhyun hovered over and continuously hitting his chest with his tiny fists. 

  
“Hey stop it!”, Chanyeol grabbed both of his hands and turned themselves, resulting him now on top of Baekhyun and pinning the boy’s hands on the ground. 

  
“Let go of me!”, Baekhyun said in the midst of bursting into tears. 

  
“Calm do—OUCH!”, Chanyeol screamed in pain when Baekhyun managed to bite on his left wrist. He withdrew his hands from pinning down the angry untamed puppy. He quickly grabbed on Baekkhyun’s shirt collar and pulled him to sit up and face him. Baekhyun did not stop hitting him whenever he had the chance to –his shoulders, chest and stomach. 

  
“Ow! Hey!”, Chanyeol tried to grab the arms again. Besides hitting, Baekhyun also pulled on Chanyeol’s brown locks and surprisingly, the young master was still composed and chose not to fight back. 

  
“I hate you!”, Baekhyun said in a cracked voice when tears, for finally, ran down his red-tainted cheeks. His hits turned softer.

  
“I’m sorry”, the older one apologized. Baekhyun almost gave up fighting and Chanyeol hugged him tightly, preventing him from hitting anymore. His hands and chest were all hurting from the hits, though he knew Baekhyun’s heart hurt more from losing something—something that could never return. His beloved—“Omma..”, Chanyeol heard the smaller chant in his cries, voice shivering from the severe sadness. 

Omma”

  
“I want omma..”

  
The seven year old kept calling to his mother as he cried loudly and nonstop. Chanyeol was now remorse for pressuring the child to cry it out earlier because Baekhyun’s cry was the saddest one he ever heard. It sounded so desperate and broken-hearted he almost could not take it. Chanyeol almost cried along but he wanted to present himself as the big brother in this circumstance. Hence, he held Baekhyun in his arms, sometimes caressing his back whilst whispering “It’s okay” and “I’m here” to calm the child down.

  
Chanyeol remembered what Baekhyun told him on the reason he wanted to befriend him; was to not feel lonely, and it was as requested by his late mother. And so that night, Chanyeol promised himself to always stay beside Baekhyun and to not ever make him feel lonely. Ever.

"There, there"

 


End file.
